Connector brackets for holding structural members together in a fixed relationship are well known in the construction industry. Various shapes and sizes of brackets exist for holding wood beams and the like together for strengthening a building structure. Many such brackets are illustrated, for example, in the product catalogs of Simpson Strong-Tie.RTM. Company, Inc., and in various prior art patents such as:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Inventor Issue Date ______________________________________ 4,308,703 Knowles 1/5/82 4,209,265 Moehlenpah 6/24/80 2,863,352 Mikesic 12/9/58 2,396,030 Terry 3/5/46 1,320,303 Young 10/28/19 450,753 Cary 4/21/1891 ______________________________________
To reduce manufacturing costs, such prior art devices are often formed by a stamping process and from a single piece of sheet material. The Knowles patent teaches such a device and includes a bracket with two plate sections linked by a channel section. Each plate section includes stamped-out teeth for engaging a wooden beam, or the like. Such teeth, however, are not barbed and can therefore be pulled out of the wooden beam relatively easily. Further, such a bracket is not well suited for fixing together two orthogonal surfaces.
Conversely, the Moehlenpah patent teaches an L-shaped bracket device for holding together two orthogonal adjoining surfaces. However, such a device is not well suited for holding together two coplanar surfaces. Further, such a device has non-barbed teeth such as in the Knowles device, and can therefore be pulled out of the wooden beam or other mounting surface relatively easily.
As is typical in the prior art, most connector brackets are only useful for a limited number of specific fastening applications, and are therefore not universally useful. Further, many of the prior art devices have mounting teeth or nail holes aligned in such a way that splitting of the wooden beams into which such devices are mounted is a common problem.
Clearly, then, there is a need for a fastening connector bracket that can be used to fasten together both coplanar and orthogonal surfaces. Such a needed device would be relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and could be stamped from a single piece of sheet material. Further, such a needed device would include barbed portions on protruding teeth for providing a relatively strong hold of the mounting surfaces. Still further, such a needed device would not tend to split the mounting surfaces. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.